Australian Premieres, Ambitious Adaptations and Shakespeare Rewritten: Sydney’s Best Stage Shows in 2026

There’s so much excellent theatre this year it’s silly. With exciting new productions in the works – such as Yve Blake’s take on Macbeth or Vivian Pham’s The Coconut Children adapted for the stage – there’s plenty to look forward to. Plus, there are returning shows that received rave reviews, such as Sistren and The Jungle and the Sea. 

Here are the upcoming theatre shows and musicals to watch in Sydney this year, in chronological order. 

Purpose

A prominent African American family in Chicago gathers for a winter catch-up, where old tensions surface and decades of secrets are revealed. Zindzi Okenyo directs this Australian premiere of the most awarded new American play of 2025. It’s the first time Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Purpose has been staged since its Broadway run. 

Purpose runs from February 2 to March 22 at Wharf Theatre 1. Tickets are on sale here.

The Normal Heart

Forty years since its debut, Larry Kramer’s semi-autobiographical play returns. This time, Sydney Theatre Company’s newly minted artistic director Mitchell Butel stars as New York writer Ned Weeks. It’s the ’80s, during the first years of the AIDS crisis, and Weeks is determined to understand the mystery illness affecting his friends and colleagues. This production, directed by Dean Bryant, received rave reviews when it was staged in Adelaide. 

The Normal Heart runs from February 9 to March 14 at Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. Tickets are on sale here.

Head Over Heels

Hayes Theatre Co has seen you lap up the pop-tinged Six the Musical and & Juliet, so they’re throwing glitter on the party and serving a camp Shakespearean-style romance with old-school pop anthems. Head Over Heels features a royal family, a mythical kingdom and songs from female rock band the Go-Go’s. It doesn’t have to make sense. 

Head Over Heels runs from February 20 to March 22 at Hayes Theatre. Find tickets here.

Fair Play

Two teen athletes, Ann and Sophie, are laser-focused on the path ahead. But as Ann seems to get better and better, a little too fast, questions are raised about her testosterone levels. Sydney’s Emma Whitehead will direct two yet-to-be-named actors in British playwright Ella Road’s whip-smart play. 

Fair Play runs from March 6 to 21 at Old Fitz Theatre. Tickets are on sale here.

Julius Caesar 

Ambition. Power. Envy. Murder. Shakespeare’s famed tragedy has it all, and this Bell Shakespeare production brings a modern slant to the Bard’s words with a set reminiscent of ’90s Eastern Europe. Artistic director Peter Evans has cherrypicked an elite squad, including Leon Ford (Elvis), Peter Carroll (Aftertaste), Brigid Zengeni (The Artful Dodger), Mark Leonard Winter (The Newsreader) and Septimus Caton (Coriolanus).

Julius Caesar runs from March 7 to April 5 at Sydney Opera House. Buy tickets here.

My Brilliant Career

Miles Franklin’s debut novel, published in 1901, finally gets the lively musical treatment. A joyful adaptation by Sheridan Harbridge and Dean Bryant, this version transforms Sybylla Melvyn into a rockstar heroine, with dazzling sets and costumes by Olivier and Tony award-winner Marg Horwell and a poppy, folksy, pub-rock soundtrack. 

My Brilliant Career runs from March 21 to May 3 at Roslyn Packer Theatre. Find tickets here.

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

Adapted by Eamon Flack, this whodunnit has Yorgos Lanthimos energy, says the director. Set in a remote village, an older woman takes it upon herself to investigate a series of mysterious deaths using clues from animals. It’s slightly bonkers, and who better to play the Polish Miss Marple than Pamela Rabe?

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead runs from March 28 to May 3 at Belvoir. Tickets are on sale now. 

The River

Jez Butterworth’s eerie drama will have the whole audience suffering from cabin fever. Ewen Leslie and Miranda Otto play a new couple spending the night in a remote shack on a clifftop. They’re readying themselves to go night fishing, or so it seems. In just 80 tense minutes, The River is a puzzle to piece together, and once you have it figured out, it’ll be hard not to replay it over and over again in your head. 

The River runs from March 30 to May 9 at Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. Tickets are on sale here.

Sistren

Back again after its debut in 2025, Sistren follows 17-year-old besties Isla and Violet in South London as the pair navigate the outright trauma of being told they must separate from one another until the end of the school year. Written by Iolanthe, who played Kara in Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner, the play stars Iolanthe alongside her real-life bestie Janet Anderson. It’s joyful and chaotic, traversing issues of racism, transphobia and trust. 

Sistren runs from April 9 to May 3 at Downstairs Theatre, Belvoir. Tickets are on sale here.

English

Staged in Melbourne and Canberra last year, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Californian playwright Sanaz Toossi opens on a classroom of Iranian students in the lead-up to their final English language exam. Each student studies for a different reason – holidays, a green card, to visit family – under the guidance of their Anglophile teacher. It’s a funny and moving look at what’s lost or left behind when English opens a door to freedom.

English runs from April 9 to May 2 at Seymour Centre. Buy tickets here.

The Birds

Being attacked by a swoopy boi is a rite of passage in Australia, so it’s not a stretch to think flocks of birds could bring down all of humanity. Daphne du Maurier’s gothic story was famously adapted by Alfred Hitchcock into a tense horror film in 1963. Now, Australian writer Louise Fox has transformed The Birds into a suspenseful one-woman show starring Paula Arundell. Artistic director Eamon Flack liked this Malthouse Theatre production so much, he’s bringing it to Belvoir. 

The Birds runs from May 16 to June 7 at Belvoir Upstairs Theatre. Tickets are on sale here.

Prima Facie

Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie has come a long way. Since its premiere season at Sydney’s Griffin Theatre Company in 2019, it’s had seasons on the West End and Broadway (starring Killing Eve’s Jodie Comer), been translated into more than 30 languages, and is currently being adapted for the screen. Now the Olivier Award-winning play is back on Australian stages for a limited season. Sheridan Harbridge, who originated the role, is playing Tessa, a hard-edged criminal lawyer who finds herself on the other side of a criminal proceeding and is forced to rethink everything she knows about her profession. 

Prima Facie runs from June 3 to 21 at the Roslyn Packer Theatre. Tickets are on sale from February 19.

Shooting Hedda Gabler

A controlling director demands more and more of his movie star until it’s hard to know what’s real and what’s fiction in this radical adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler by British playwright Nina Segal. In this remix, Henrik is a charismatic, manipulative and obsessive film director. It’s giving Me Too, and it’ll be nightmarish. 

Shooting Hedda Gabler runs from June 5 to 27 at Seymour Centre. Tickets are on sale here.

Mackenzie

Fangirls creator Yve Blake and Virginia Gay have teamed up with Bell Shakespeare to sprinkle a tonne of 2000s reality TV joy and ambition into a new, entirely original adaptation of Macbeth. In this version, the fated one is 13-year-old Mackenzie, backed by her ruthless stage mum Ruth (Nikki Britton from Deadloch). It’ll feature original songs, and an exciting debut from Hot Dub Time Machine’s Tom Lowndes as the play’s sound designer. 

Mackenzie runs from June 11 to July 18 at the Neilson Nutshell. Tickets are on sale here.

The Jungle and the Sea

S Shakthidharan’s monumental play Counting and Cracking took audiences to several periods and locations leading up to and during the Sri Lankan civil war. Its follow-up play The Jungle and the Sea was co-written by Shakthidharan and director Eamon Flack, and shifts the focus to northern Sri Lanka, dropping us into 1995, 2009 and 2022 – the year the play debuted. It’s just as epic as the first, with themes of survival, love and dignity.

The Jungle and the Sea runs from July 11 to August 2 at Belvoir Upstairs Theatre. Buy tickets here.

Mum Club

Motherhood can be lonely without the so-called village, which makes parent groups a vital lifeline – but how desperate can you be for community? Young mum Sadie, a Yuin woman who’s just moved to Sydney, is forced to compromise her values when she joins the Inner West Mum Club, which is rife with well-meaning mothers sipping almond lattes.

Mum Club runs from August 22 to September 20 at Downstairs Theatre, Belvoir. Buy tickets here.

Strong Is the New Pretty

Sheridan Harbridge was the first actor to play criminal lawyer Tessa in the global hit Prima Facie by Suzie Miller, so it feels right – no, thrilling! – that they’re reunited for the world premiere of Miller’s Strong Is the New Pretty. Swapping courtrooms for drama on the field, Miller’s play is all about the birth of AFLW. It’s directed by another collaborator, Lee Lewis who directed Prima Facie and the Helpmann Award-winning The Bleeding Tree. 

Strong is the New Pretty runs from October 22 to December 5 at Sydney Opera House. Tickets are here.

The Coconut Children

Set in Cabramatta in 1998, Vivian Pham’s award-winning novel follows childhood friends Sonny and Vince who are reunited after Vince’s stint in juvenile detention. As the story unfolds, we get a glimpse into the lives of their families and the greater Vietnamese community. This anticipated stage adaptation features Heartbreak High’s Gemma Chua-Tran and Haiha Le from Boy Swallows Universe. 

The Coconut Children runs from November 21 to December 20 at Belvoir. Find out more here.